Kristoff/New York Times: Romney's Economic Model Would Ruin U.S. Economy

[amborin]

Romney’s Economic Model


If you want to see how Romney’s economic policies would work out, take a look at Europe. And weep.

In the last few years, Germany and Britain, in particular, have implemented precisely the policies that Romney favors, and they have been richly praised by Republicans here as a result. Yet these days those economies seem, to use a German technical term, kaput.

Is Europe a fair comparison? Well, Republicans seem to think so, because they came up with it. In the last few years, they’ve repeatedly cited Republican-style austerity in places like Germany and Britain as a model for America.

Let’s dial back the time machine and listen up:

“Europe is already setting an example for the U.S.,” Representative Kenny Marchant, a Texas Republican, said in 2010. (You know things are bad when a Texas Republican is calling for Americans to study at the feet of those socialist Europeans.)

The same year, Karl Rove praised European austerity as a model for America and approvingly quoted the leader of the European Central Bank as saying: “The idea that austerity measures could trigger stagnation is incorrect.”
...

....The International Monetary Fund this month downgraded its estimates for global economic growth, with only one major bright spot in the West. That would be the United States, expected to grow a bit more than 2 percent this year and next.

In contrast, Europe’s economy is expected to shrink this year and have negligible growth next year. The I.M.F. projects that Germany will grow less than 1 percent this year and next, while Britain’s economy is contracting this year.

Karl Rove, that sounds a lot like stagnation to me.

All this is exactly what economic textbooks predicted. Since Keynes, it’s been understood that, in a downturn, governments should go into deficit to stimulate demand; that’s how we got out of the Great Depression. And recent European data and I.M.F. analyses underscore that austerity in the middle of a downturn not only doesn’t help but leads to even higher ratios of debt to economic output....."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/opinion/kristof-romneys-economic-plan.html?_r=0

[highplainsdem]

1. K&R

[DCKit]

2. Yeah, 'cause y'know, it's impossible to implement what it is they've done right...

and look at what they've done wrong, fix that and implement it, as well.

Where could we ever find someone with the intelligence to do that kind of analysis, to make those (nearly impossible) decisions? Where's Jesus when you need him? No, not THAT Jesus, the Jesus with the degree in accounting.

The gnashing of teeth and wailing are simply an excuse to do nothing, at all.